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Friday, February 7, 2014

Kaiju May Replace Zombies as the Next Gaming Genre

Screen shot from upcoming game adaptation for anime hit, "Attack on Titans"

Many apologies for the delay in posts! I was ill, in bed, for more days than I want to admit. I'm on the mend and decided to tackle kaiju in video games, specifically the non-combat, kaiju vs. kaiju, style games. We start with an article by The New Hampshire published earlier today.

The New Hampshire a paper that serves the the University of New Hampshire predicted or suggests that the next trend, replacing zombies, in gaming could be (or should be) kaiju. Read an excerpt from The New Hapshire's article, "A look at the next gaming craze" written by Joel Kost:

I like zombie games as much as the next person, but after almost a decade of brains, guts, and gore, I’m ready for a change of pace. Let’s see a new genre for a new generation of consoles. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo promised big changes and new games with their next-gen. hardware, and so far all three haven’t really lived up to the ‘new’ games part. It may seem a bit random, but I think the gaming world is ready for a kaiju genre.

Mr. Kost continues to root for kaiju praising the success of the genre in the movies and mentions a few of the previous fighting style games.

The kaiju film genre has proven to be incredibly resilient, surviving for over 50 years with countless entries, but it’s often overlooked in the gaming world. That’s a shame, because the few kaiju games we have seen give us a glimpse of a robust genre with many styles of gameplay.

The recent adventure game “Attack of the Friday Monsters” for the 3DS shows us what a light-hearted kaiju game could look like, placing the player in the shoes of a young boy enthralled by the giant monsters. “Colossatron,” another recent game for mobile devices, is about a giant, robotic beast destroying city after city with intense puzzle mechanics. And let’s not forget the PS2 fighting classic, “War of the Monsters,” which gives the player a whole roster of kaiju to fight and play as (there are also many “Godzilla” games that mimic this style of gameplay).

Mr. Kost seems to lament in the last paragraph, "I wish I could give more examples of how kaiju games could be a success, but the fact is there really aren’t any." We disagree. Although you won't get any argument from us regarding the validity of kaiju games as a genre, there are some great successes outside the fighting-style of kaiju games.

First up: Shadow of the Colossus (2005)
This innovative title was far ahead of it's time, in tech and game design, the enemies were so big you could get lost in the architecture of each creature while it was moving! The scale was so realistic at points you felt you were climbing an organic building as it was flying through the sky. Each colossus at the end of each level got larger and larger. back then it was rare to have the entire environment move independently as you tried to climb it and kill it! Check out the first boss below:

Second Up: Attack on Titan (2014)
This is based on the popular anime and manga with the same title. The gist of the story is human-like kaiju have invaded the planet and humans have found a way to defend themselves against them. They use big walls around the city and have these grappling hooks on their wist that allow them to climb and incredible speeds. When the Titans get too close they kill them. Even in the simple networked game, it allows for all dsorts of cool game play. The video below splices some of the anime scenes in the beginning to give you a taste for what the anime is like.

Here's a 3DS game based on the same title, which shows how having a kaiju in game play totally changes the dynamics of a game.

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About Everything Kaiju

This site is to celebrate Kaiju as the muse for creativity and imagination. There's something innate withing ourselves that starves for monsters that are bigger than life. Whether these creatures are obvious rubber suits or digital animation, it is the idea that there is something about giant monsters that speaks to our hearts and minds.

About Guy Edwards

I love everything Kaiju. As an illustrator, my drawing pad is full of fantastic creatures. Giant monsters attacking people and cities has been around since the Greeks told stories about the Kraken, and I hope that the consensus terminology for these giant monsters will remain Kaiju into the future. Contact me at EverythingKaiju@gmail.com